No, that's not a clever attention grabber to get you to read about Syracuse's 85-68 win over Providence Tuesday night at the Carrier Dome before 20,258 in attendance, including a particular ESPN analyst who stirs the emotions of Syracuse fans more than any other.

No sir. That is a true statement.

For the first time in program history, Syracuse has won 22 of their first 23 games.

Now, the cliche police would be quick to point out that "it's not how you start, it's how you finish" and they would be right, but still, that's pretty darn impressive.

For the Syracuse Basketball fan, it will hopefully be the start of many more milestones to come this season. Hearing they are off to the best start in program history will validate what many think of this team and intensify the dreams of getting to Indianapolis that are growing by the day in Orange Nation.

I'm not the only saying or thinking out loud on that subject by the way. With all due respect to Jim Boeheim's comments after the game that we "shouldn't listen to what players say", some players talked openly after the game about having a stated goal of winning the national title, which kind of bucks the "one game at a time" line they are supposed to give you.

As for this game? Other than the very scary jolt everyone got when Wes Johnson hit the deck, Providence's Jamine Peterson tossing an alley oop to himself off the backboard, and Kris Joseph owning the second half, honestly, it was kind of a shoulder shrug.

Let's just say the words "Providence" and "defense" wouldn't end up in too many Google searches together. Yikes, was that Friar interior defense awful.

Jim Boeheim even spent a bulk of his post game press conference clarifying a point about how his team was ready to go... for the DePaul game... despite what some had said to the contrary (*looking around whistling*)

After Providence hung in there for a series of rebounds, easy inside plays, and Syracuse turnovers to go into the half down just 37-34, Syracuse erupted for a 22-7 spurt to open the second half and that was that. The whole game had taken on a "this is closer than it should be" feel until the Friars were left in the proper wake.

After that, it was more entertaining to see what new "big heads" had appeared in the crowd and who was on the kiss cam.

Now, it is on to Cincinnati for this Syracuse team on Super Bowl Sunday.

Will the best start ever continue for a team with title hopes on a day the biggest title in American sports is decided?

Would it be an over statement to say the fate of the rest of the season flashed before your very eyes when Wes Johnson went down with 11:56 left in the first half?

It would be in the sense that Kris Joseph stepped up to fill Wes's shoes in the second half and finish with a career-high 23 points and that this team has demonstrated all the virtues of being a true team this season and can over come a loss like that.

Still, Wes is Wes.

Injuries are always the elephant in the room in sports, but can you imagine going the rest of year without Wes Johnson on the floor?

It truly was a scary moment when Wes went head over heels after being fouled by Providence's Brian McKenzie. The Carrier Dome crowd went very silent very fast after they realized what had happened.

“Wow. I saw Scoop. He threw it. I was gonna dunk it. And then, I ended up on the ground.” Wes said after the game. “(McKenzie) went back into me. When I fell, I really just tried to take the fall. I didn’t really try to stop myself. I got a lot of adrenaline and it really stiffened up by halftime. And then after that, I didn’t think I should rush anything. Just stay out.

“I just knew that I fell hard and it hurt. I was in the air and I was just flipping a little bit. But I don’t know. I didn’t really see it. They said ‘did you take gymnastics?’ I’m not gonna look at it. … I’ll have nightmares if I see that.”

Wes' left side took most of the impact and the pain that eventually coincided with that fall is what prevented him from returning to the game in the second half. He did return to the game after the play and a timeout, but reality set in after awhile and Wes sat out most of the second half.

Jim Boeheim said after the game that Wes should be OK and that he could have gone back into the game if absolutely needed. The team has a scheduled day off on Wednesday and Wes will get treatment on his left leg, which seemed to be giving him the most trouble on the bench.

He said at his locker after the game that he felt OK and should be good to go for Cincinnati on Super Bowl Sunday. He was in the trainer's room for a bit, but didn't have a wrap or ice on his leg when talking to the media at his locker after the game. I'm not a doctor, but it is also probably a good sign that they didn't take him to the locker room during the game.

(Dennis Nett/The Post Standard 2010)

Joseph Delivers

I'm not even sure it would be fair to say Kris Joseph "stepped up" in Wes's absence. He is just playing that good lately, with or without Wes in the line up.

Joseph finished this game with a career-high 23 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals.

It is not really a surprise at this point to see him rattle off those kind of numbers. He had been averaging 15 points per game in the three games before this and thrilling SU fans with his rim rockers, drives to the basket, hustle, and determination.

But he made it look too easy at times in this game. He got to the hoop with ease, nailing 9 of 11 field goal attempts, and was a perfect 5-for-5 at the free throw line.

He technically may be the best sixth man in the country, but who really still thinks of him as a bench player at this point? AP

Joseph credits his rise this season to hard work this past summer paying off.

“My confidence started building up when I changed my body over the summer time,” Joseph said after the game. “When we were playing open runs in the summer, I felt like I was getting to the basket and I was scoring easy. It’s open runs, there’s not really defense. The real test came in the first couple games of the season where I realized I think I can really play at this level now.”

It's one thing to score. I think Syracuse fans are appreciating this is a guy who is scoring with a passion he wears on his sleeve right now.

“Every game when I come out it’s just be aggressive off the bench,” Joseph said. “The team needed a spark and that’s what I’ve been doing the whole year and that’s something that I don’t want to stop doing so I just wanted to be aggressive.”

The Sunny Side

*Arinze Onuaku certainly took advantage of the big size gap between these two teams and dropped in 20 points (on 10-12 shooting), grabbed 7 rebounds, and had 4 blocks.

I honestly don't care about the numbers. Frankly, it would have been a bigger story if he didn't have at least 20 points because the Friars had no answer for him (poor Ray Hall).

The key in this game for A.O. was that he was aggressive on both sides of the ball. I can live without the big scoring numbers when he doesn't have them, but he simply hasn't been as aggressive as he needs to be this season when match ups are more even. He was in this game.

I have noted on the radio and here in the blog several times that Arinze just isn't where he needs to be as a player at this point in his career. Jim Boeheim said that as well in his post game press conference after this game. Dennis Nett/The Post Standard 2010

Will this game be a step in the right direction for him to be more consistent and aggressive?

One would hope with a very physical Cincinnati team looming on Super Bowl Sunday.

*Brandon Triche had a nice rebound effort from the DePaul game where, frankly, he looked like a typical freshman most of the time.

Triche had a nice reverse early in the game and the big three to open the second half (inside an A.O. hot streak) and that was a big stick of dynamite to let Providence know they weren't going to keep this one within reach. He also was aggressive in getting to the basket in taking advantage of Providence's disinterest in playing defense.

Jim Boeheim has been a fierce defender of Triche from Day 1 and tonight was no different. I asked Boeheim about Triche after the game.

“Brandon’s more confident,’’ Boeheim said. “He made a couple early moves to the basket. He’s already proven himself to me. He’s a good player. He’s just got to relax and go out there and play.’

*Rick Jackson was the latest Orangeman to be the "huh?" guy to lead the team in assists. It was Wes against DePaul with 7 and Rick in this game with 7 assists. It's actually not that big of a surprise given the lack of size inside by Providence and their lack of interior defense. He did a terrific job on the interior passing the ball. Rick also chipped in 6 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 blocks.

The difference between Rick and A.O. (as they are inevitably tied together) at this point is that Rick seems to always give you something. He isn't a scoring machine, but something always sticks out on the box score. It seems to be an all or nothing effort from A.O. night in and night out.
Dennis Nett/The Post Standard 2010

*Kind of a quiet one for Scoop Jardine. Not a bad game by any stretch, just quiet. He chipped in his usual 4 assists and had 5 points, although 3 of those came on a 3-point shot very late in the game when this one was well out of reach. Still, he made some nice passes and didn't turn the ball over in 21 minutes of play.

*Say all you want about Providence's horrid defense, this team can flat out score. To hold one of the top scoring teams in the conference and the 5th highest scoring team in the country to 68 points is a good thing. Syracuse cut off the lane in the second half and stopped the easy buckets that were coming inside for the most part in the first half.

*A.O.'s dominance inside helps this number out, but the status of being one of the best field goal percentage teams in the country will certainly be helped by the 58% clip from this game. Syracuse shot 64% in the 2nd half.

*I thought it was important for this team to have a good start after slow jumps out of the gate in the last three games and that they did, jumping out to an 18-8 lead.

*Syracuse blocked 8 shots. Providence had as many as God Shamgod did in this game.

*Syracuse had a 22-5 run to open the second half and put this one to bed.

The Dark Side

*Syracuse got out rebounded 35-34. While they didn't have as big a size gap here as the Marquette game, when they out rebounded the Golden Eagles 46-21, they had a clear size advantage and let Providence get too many rebounds. No excuse for that close of a rebounding edge.

*The Syracuse defense clamped down in the second half, but it allowed way too many easy paths to the basket and open shots for Providence before it did. The first half had a "this is closer than it should be" feel. It was 37-34 at the half. And I'll maintain that if Providence played any sort of defense, this one would have been a lot closer.

*I'm officially a little concerned about Andy Rautins. Something is off there right now.

I get it, he doesn't have to score for this team to be effective and he does more than just score.

That said, even in a game where Joseph and A.O. combined for 43 points and took 19 of Syracuse's 34 shots to carry the load, Rautins went 2-for-8 from three point range and had 5 turnovers. There was a great tweet I saw during the game that asked if Rautins makes passes as if he gets points for degree of difficulty. That's really that not far off a statement to make right now. He also had some uncharacteristic bad defensive plays.

I'm sure he'll get it together and he is still someone I want with the ball in his hands in a key spot, but it is worth noting his struggles for right now.

*16 turnovers only led to 16 points for the Friars (where 17 Friar turnovers led to 25 SU points), but I still think this team should only be committing 9-10 a game at most. There are just a few too many careless passes and lazy plays out there for a team that is this good.

*I'm not a "Mookie needs to play more" guy, but he'd have a legit beef about not getting some minutes in this game.

This, That, and the Other Thing

*Syracuse has now won 9 straight.

*Syracuse was 21-1 in 1979-80, but had never won 22 of their first 23 games to begin a season before this start.

*Starting in this game, Providence will face a Top 10 team in six of their next seven games.

*Kris Joseph has averaged 33 minutes a game in the last four games

*Joseph was the latest player honored with a "big head in the student section.

*Syracuse head football coach Doug Marrone sat behind the SU bench during the game with his family. His son was sporting a # 9 Drew Brees Saints jersey. Marrone will address the media on Wednesday, which is signing day in college football, about his recruiting class.

*Though a tweet went out from @ScoopJardine11 during the game, no, that wasn't the actual Scoop Jardine who tweeted during the game. Now, that would have been something.

Scoop explained after the game there is some kind of other Scoop-related Facebook page/feed that somehow tweets from his real account. So, for all you tech nerds out there, help the man figure out what the heck is going on.

*So, that leads us to our real tweet of the night:

@ScoopJardine11

"Yo how can I tweet from the bench smh that wasn't me.."

*Did you miss my chat with ESPN's Doug Gottlieb on ESPN Radio 1260 yesterday? No problem. Here is a link to the podcast.

*Jim Boeheim is scheduled to join me on the radio today at 3:15 p.m. The link to listen online is right here.

Brent Axe is also the host of "On the Block", heard weekdays from 3-6 p.m. on ESPN Radio 1260 in Syracuse. The show is simulcast on TV on Time Warner Cable Sports. You can listen to the show online by clicking right here